road riporter 4.4

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IThe Road-R PorterBimonthly Newsletter of the Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads. July/August 1999. Volume 4 # 4

conti nued on page 4

As m omen tum builds for protectingthis uniqu e resou rce, pressure s to develop

also have intensified. The Chu gach

Alaska Corpo ra tion (CAC), a for-p rofitnative corporation created pursuan t to the

Alaska Native Claims Settlemen t Act,continu es to press th e U.S. Forest Service

for a logging road r ight-of-way across the

Delta. At the sam e time, com me rcialfisher man , governm ent officials, and

some CAC shareh olders no w believe th ecorporation would be much better off

selling a conservation easement than

logging its inh oldings.

Teeming w ith w ildlife, Alaskas Copper River Delta is now threatened by massive

roading and resource extraction. Photo courtesy of National Wildlife Federation.

Where the Copper River sp ills int o t heGulf of Alaska, it forms an immense

wet land ecosys t em of almost

unparalleled productiv it y, a vast deltasupp ort ing an incredible array of ter rest rial,

aquatic and avian species.

Framed by ser rated peaks, and adorned w it h

drift ing columns of glacial ice, the Copp er RiverDelta (Delta) defines an uncompromising

wildness.

Wetland Wilderness

or Paradise Lost?


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The Road-RIPorter July/August 19992

WildlandsWildlandsWildlandsWildlandsWildlands CCCCCenter for PPPPPreventing RRRRRoads

Wildlands Center for PreventingRoads works to prot ect and restorewildland ecosystems by preventingand removing roads and limitingmotorized recreation. We are a

national clearinghouse and netw ork,providing citizens w ith tools and

strategies t o fight roadconstruction, deter motorizedrecreation, and promote r oad

removal and revegetation.

P.O. Box 7516Missoula, MT 59807

(406) 543-9551

[email protected]/WildCPR

Utah Office2056 E. 33rd St. #1

Salt Lake City, UT 84109(801) 487-8900

[email protected]

Colorado OfficeP.O. Box 2353

Boulder, CO 80306(303) 247-0998

[email protected]

DirectorBethanie Walder

Development DirectorTom Youngblood-Peterse n

Office Manager

Cate CampbellORV Camp aign Coordinat or

Scott Groene

Motor ized Wreck-RecreationProgramJacob Smith

NewsletterJim Coefield, Dan Funsch

Interns & Volunteers

Andy Geiger, Julia Hathaway, Chuck

Irestone, Karen Verm ilye

Board of DirectorsKatie Alvord, Mary Byrd Davis,

Sidney Maddock, Rod Mondt,Cara Nelson, Mary O'Brien,Tom Skeele, Scott Stouder

Advisory Committ eeJasper Carlton, Libby Ellis,

Dave Foreman, Keith Hammer,Timothy Hermach,

Marion Hourdequin, Lorin Lindner,Andy Mahler, Robert McConnell,

Stephanie Mills, Reed Noss,Michael Soul, Dan Stotter,

Steve Trombulak, Louisa Willcox,Bill Willers, Howie Wolke

From the Wildlands CPR Office...

Cyclists, hikers, ho rseback riders an d oth ers are o ut in th e field, all over th e

cou ntr y, sur veying roads. Activists in New Mexico, Colorad o, Mon tan a and

Arizona, to n ame a few p laces, are com pleting inventories of Forest Serviceand Bureau of Land Managem ent roa ds. Arm ed with th ese inventories, activists will

be working with land man agers to reduce the num ber of roads on public lands. Ifyour organ ization wou ld like to set up a road inventory pr ogram, please call our

office!!!

WelcomeA big welcome to sum me r intern s

Chuck Irestone and Julia Hathoway.

Julia comes to u s, perha ps a b it jaded,from too man y years on Capitol Hill.

After picking up a quick grad degree at

Yale, shes now land ed in Missoula an dwill help develop our r oads program

before she embarks on her next mastersdegree at the University of Mon tana.

Chuck is working with u s throu gh the

Patagonia intern s program. We firstworked with Chuck wh en h e was at the

Dillon Patagonia outlet, thou gh he n owworks for an outdoor store here in

Mizoo. Chu ck will be helping us ou t with

marketing and developing new publicinformation brochures and displays on

road rem oval. Welcome to both of you,

we cant tell ya how mu ch we app reciateyour h elp!!

ThanksSpeaking of Patagonia, more th anksto the Dillon, MT store for hosting their

fifth ann ual Brew-grass an d Chili-bag

Festival this July 24th . If you ll be in theDillon neighborhood, stop by for some

great hom e-brews, music and chili!!Proceeds will ben efit the local Human e

Society and Wildlands CPR.

We owe an enorm ous thank you to

return ed volunteer Andy Geiger for his h elp with o ur ORV FOIA (freedom of inform a-tion act) request an alysis. Because of his work and th e continu ing work of Jen

Feren stein, we should have a comp leted database analyzing ORV man agemen t on all

National Forests by m id-August. We plan to m ake all this inform ation available overthe web, so you can download the details on your forest and then get to work

improving man agement th ere.

Extra sp ecial thank s to o utfitter and guide Steve Allen for re quisitionin g several

significant don ations for our ORV program. Well put th ese and o ther d onation s togood use protecting wildlands from roads an d ORVs.

Finally, ma ny th anks to Carolyn Duckworth for her provocative essay, The Wolf

Road. Carolyn pain ts a somewh at different picture of roads than we have seen

before and we th ink this essay raises impor tant qu estions abou t roads, wildlife andour relation to both. Were interested in you r feedback.

In this Issue

Alaskas Copper River Delta

p. 1, 4-5Adapted from an article by Tony Terr ini

Depaving t he Way, p. 3

Bethanie Walder

Legal Notes, p. 6-7

Felice Pace

Odes to Roads, p. 8-9Caro lyn Duckworth

Legislative Updat e, p. 10-11

Bibliograp hy Not es, p . 12-13

Scott Bagley

Regional Report s & Alerts ,p. 14

New Resour ces for Road

Rippers, p . 14


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The Road-RIPorter July/August 1999 3

Mitigate ThisBy Bethanie Walder

October 19 97, driving outside Park City, UT for our ann ual

Wildlands CPR board mee ting, we passed an interesting sign,

deer crosswalk ahea d. We looked at each other, confused, an dthen we saw it: a crosswalk painted on the road an d a deer

crossing sign. Is this some kind of joke, we wondere d? Unfortu-nately we didnt have a camera, because it wasn t a joke, real

transportation dollars were spent to p ut up these signs an d all

the wh ite lines. Real transp ortation dollars also were spen tfencing the m ule deer away from the rest of the road and

funn eling them in to the crosswalk. But there were no crossingguards and n o signs of cars slowing down. We wonde red aloud

if som ething as simple as this could really prevent mu le deer

roadkill? More imp ortantly, we wondered if mitigation could

replace road prevention or removal.Theres a moveme nt afoot to mitigate the impacts of

highways and roads on wildlife, to reconnect habitat using underpasses

and overpasses (or crosswalks), as if we could have our cake a nd eat it,

too. And w hile mitigation is critical, it only treats the sym ptom s of theproblem s caused by roads and highways. Preventing road constru ction

and rem oving roads are m ore effective ways to protect wildlife andwildlife habitat.

There are th ree main ways to m itigate the imp acts of roads: with

mitigation structures; mitigation banking, and; road prevention andrem oval. To date, most mitigation ha s emp loyed the first two options

building structures th at allow wildlife to cross a roa d, or reser ving landin one place to make up for degraded land elsewhere. Interest in road

rem oval is increasing, but it remains the least com mo n ch oice.

When the Trans-Canada h ighway in Banff National Park waswidened in the late 198 0s, wildlife and highway m ana gers developed

mea sures to reduce elk mortality on the new road. These includedinstalling eleven u nde rpasses within a 27 k ilome ter span of the highway

(Clevenger 19 98). The und erpasses m ostly were used by elk and deer,

but also by wolves, bears, coyotes and cou gars and oth er anim als. Whilethe structures did reconn ect habitat for elk and deer, they caused some

unintended effects, like temporarily increasing bighorn sheep mortality(sheep became trapped against the fences while trying to escape from

coyotes). In addition, several of the under passes are used by hum ans,

which deter wildlife. Since large carnivore use of un derp asses remainslow, even m ost mitigated roads con tinue to redu ce habitat con nectivity

for species such as grizzly bear an d wolves.Mitigation is not limited to wildlife road crossings. It can be

accom plished by dedicating to protection a cer tain type of hab itat, likewetlands. If a road will destroy x num ber of wetlands, then a developermay be required to protecty num ber of wetlands in return. In many

cases these wetland s are in a different place, and wh ile there m ay be nonet loss of h abitat, there is still an impact to wh atever species lived

within the destroyed wetland.

And w hat of th ose deer cr osswalks, how well are they working?While roadkill dropp ed 40% after installing them , overall highway

mo rtality increased be cause de er th at enter ed th e right-of-way (ROW) atthe crosswalk often stayed to forage. Only 16% o f the deer within the

ROW left via the on e-way gates that h ad been installed, leaving the d eer

highly vulnerable to traffic. In addition, vehicles did not slow down for

the cro sswalks, despite war ning signs (Lehn ert,

Romin and Bissonette 1996). On the other hand , the

crossing did not appear to disrupt seasonal migrationof mule deer, allowing those dee r which u sed the

crosswalk to travel between winter an d sum merranges. Transp ortation ma nagers also are investigat-

ing methods to solve some of the un forseen p rob-

lems.Even with m itigation efforts, roads con tinue to

cause pro blems. Som e of the mitigation itself leadsto wildlife problem s, like increased pred ation or

chan ged behavior. Other efforts do not effectively

mitigate the problem s roads cause. The types ofmitigation mentioned in this article are used on very

few roads, both b ecause of a lack of fundin g and afailure to understan d the impacts roads cause. In

addition, many extremely damaging roads were built

before hab itat fragmentation w as un derstood, and itsmu ch h arder to m itigate after a road is built. While

we can b e hearten ed by some mitigation successes,we mu st recognize the limited scope with wh ich

mitigation h as been ap plied, and the limited species

for which mitigation actually reconnects fragmentedhabitat.

Mitigation efficacy sho uld be evaluated on itsown m erits in situations wh ere road removal or

prevention is not an op tion. Creative mitigationshou ld be encou raged to devise mor e effectivesystems an d less obtrusive roads, such as elevating or

buryin g highways for m iles at a time. But in add itionto mitigation, it is critical to consider ways to limit

transportation needs in wildland ecosystems, and to

prevent u nn ecessary or extremely detrimental roadconstru ction, as well as promoting road rem oval as a

more perman ent solution.

References on page 11

Reprinted from Lehnert, Romin & Bissonette, 1996.


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continued from page 1

BackgroundThe Copper River is located in rem ote sou th-centra l Alaska and, for

much of its length, forms the western boundary of the countrys largest

National Park, Wran gell-St. Elias. The St. Elias moun tains to the e ast ar ethe worlds tallest coastal range, capp ed by th e largest man tle of glacial

ice outside the polar ice caps and Green land.

At 700,000 acres, the Coppe r River Delta is the largest wetlan dscomp lex on the Pacific coast of North Amer ica, and it hosts an im pre s-

sive assem blage of fish an d wildlife. Consider ed by biologists to be o neof the most impo rtant shorebird habitats in the western h emisphere, the

Delta is a critical staging area for over 16 million shoreb irds and other

species of waterfowl. It supp orts world-ren own ed salmon run s and is ahaven for grizzly an d black bears, wolves, mou ntain goats, mo ose, mink,

wolverines, otters, sea lions, an d h arbor seals.Notwithstanding its harsh, untamed appearance, the Delta has

nurtured th e peop le of the Copper River basin for thousands of years.

Gener ations of Eyak Ind ians ha ve relied upon the bo un tiful fish an d

wildlife, and today, subsistence an d com mercial fishing are th e ma in-stays of the regions econo mic base. Most of the watershe ds pop ulationof abou t 5,000 lives in th e town of Cordova.

In 1907 Teddy Roosevelt created

the Chu gach National Forest to h elpprotect th e Delta and Prince William

Sound from un regulated coal miningand other developm ents. And today

the Delta is designated a Western

Hemisphere Shoreb ird ReserveNetwork Site, an em ph asis area in the

North American Waterfowl Manage-ment Plan, and a State Critical Wildlife

Habitat Area.

The Development ThreatAs Nation al Forest land , the Delta remains vulnerab le to governm ent

sub sidized logging, minin g, and o ff-road vehicle use, bu t the CACs plan s

to clear cut its inho ldings 30 miles east of the Copp er River presen t amo re imm ediate threat. To access the land , CAC has p ropo sed a 55-m ile

raised dirt and gravel roadw ay a road th at would sever as ma ny as400 stream s feeding the eastern Coppe r River region, degrading thou -

sand s of acres of tidal marsh es, wetland s, and sa lmon h abitat.

Despite the eno rm ity of this threat, the Forest Service recentlyentered into a m emorandu m of understanding with the Chugach Alaska

Corp oration allowing CAC to p lan an d de velop th e pr oject without a fullen vironm en tal imp act stateme nt as required by NEPA. CAC also per -

suaded Alaska Represen tative Don Youn g to in trodu ce a bill in Con gress,H.R. 3087 , that wou ld force th e Fores t Service to grant CAC a 500 -foot-wide road easement.

CAC has already obtained at least one Fish Habitat permit fromthe Alaska Departmen t of Fish and Gam e, allowing it to place a bridge

across the first stream in the pro posed road corridor. Anoth er 200 to

250 of th ese per mits will be requ ired, while filling streams or wetlandswill requ ire Section 404 Permits und er th e Clean Water Act. CAC ha s

stated that th e pr oject is exempt from th ese perm it requiremen ts, andthat they may proceed without them.

Shorebirds take to the sky over the Delta. Photo courtesy of

National W ildlife Federation.

Commercial fishermen, government officials, and

some CAC shareholders now believe the corporation

would be much bett er off selling a conservat ion

easement t han logging its inholdings.

Copper River Delta

Alaskas Copper River Delta


5/16


A Conservation AlternativeWorking together un der th e um brella of the Copp er River Delta

Coalition, fisher men , natives, environ men talists, and o rganizations like

the Nationa l Wildlife Federation com missioned an indep end ent an alysislast fall of CACs pr oposed logging project. Accordin g to ECONorth west

of Eugene, Oregon , CAC is actua lly likely to lose m on ey if it proceeds

with the p roject, due to the roads expen se and th e depr essed Asiantimber market. The report also emph asized the thr eat posed to the

areas world-famous salmo n fishery, a potential cost to the entire region.On the other hand, under a conservation easement, CAC would be

paid cash an d com mercial property in exchange for development r ights.

This option h as proven lucrative to other Alaska native corporation s indeals brokered by the Exxon Trustee Coun cil in recent years. Anoth er

advantage of selling a conservation easem ent is that revenu es would beexem pt from revenue -sharing provisions of the Native Claims Settleme nt

Act, which can gobble up a full 70% of the revenu es from timber or

mineral sales.Coalition p artne rs have impressed u pon federal officials the

impo rtance o f protecting the Copper River Delta, and ha ve ma deencouraging progress in recent m onths. One potential source of mon ey

to pu rchase th e con servation easemen t has emerged the ClintonAdministrations Lands Legacy Initiative, a $1.3 billion budget requestfor federal land acqu isition and ope n space pr otection. The Forest

Service now sup ports a con servation easemen t and has stated that itintend s to initiate negotiations with CAC as soon as th e road right-of-

way is granted, which could happ en early this summ er. In addition,

Alaskas spe cial assistant to th e Secretary of Interior h as said th e Deltashou ld be a priority un der the Lands Legacy Initiative.

Thousands of acres of marshes and wetlands are at risk from the proposed

road. Photo courtesy of National Wildlife Federation.

The Copper River drains the wild St. Elias mountain

range. Photo courtesy of National Wildlife Federation.

ConclusionEven if CAC abandon s its plan , the Copper River

Delta will someday su ccum b to overuse an d develop-men t un less we ch ange the legal status of the land

itself. The Delta is rich in oil, coal, timb er an dtour ism poten tial, creating a powerful incen tive for

exploitation a nd p rofit. Ultimately, protecting thisnational treasure will depend upon securing Wilder-ness designation or comparable conservation status.

This will requ ire broad-based o utreach a nd ed ucationto gain supp ort from native landowners, governm ent

officials an d th e Amer ican p ublic.

What You Can DoThe Chugach National Forest is now revising its

15-year Forest Plan, and your comm ents can helpconvince them to recomm end Wilderness status for

the Copper River Delta and its watershed. Pleasewrite to:

Chugach N.F. Super visor Dave Gibbon s

U.S. Forest Service3301 C. St., Suite 300

Anchorage, AK 99503

For m ore inform ation on the Copper River Delta,

call Scott Anaya at 907-258-4808, e-mail tocopp [email protected], or visit www.nwf.org/

copperriver on the w eb.

Adapted from an article by Tony Terrini, Director of

the Alaska office of the National Wildlife Federation.

Ultimately, protecting this national

t reasure will depend upon securing

Wilderness designation or comparableconservation s tat us.


6/16


In an important case with far-reaching implications and a useful

precedent for road-rippers, the Klamath Forest Alliance (KFA)

recently won their lawsuit challenging ERFO-funde d road recon -stru ction on the Klamat h National Fores t (KNF). The District Court

decision, explained below, is the first major victory for con servationistswho h ave sought to stop ERFOs blanket exemption o f environm ental

reviews.

Background About ERFOAlmost every year a federal disaster is declared som ewher e in the

United States. Often, a National Forest is located within the disaster area .When this is the case, the Forest Service (FS) is eligible for funding from

the Federal Highway Adm inistration to repair road s dam aged durin g thedisaster event. This p rogram is known as ERFO or Emer gency Relief for

Federally Owned roads.

On Janu ary 1, 1997 a large, rain-on-snow event triggered over 724road failures on the Klamath National Forest. Forests th rough out

North ern California and South ern Oregon were affected. Disaster areaswere d eclared. The FS applied for over $10 0 m illion in ERFO funds for

Region 5 (CA), $30 million on the KNF alone.

By Federal Highway Administration regulations, ERFO projects canbe categor ically exclude d from NEPA. (Title 23 USC Sec.115 an d 117) As

a resu lt, the FS did not com plete Environm ental Assessmen ts or Envi-ronm ental Impact Statements for these road reconstruction projects,

even wh en extraordin ary circum stances existed, like the presen ce of

end angered sp ecies, steep slopes or u nstable lands. [In 1997, W ildlands

CPR was part of a lawsuit brought by t he Hells Canyon PreservationCouncil to challenge just this type of categorical exclusion under ERFO.

Gumboot Creek, in Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, was known

habitat for a federally listed Snake River salmon species. Unfortu nately t he

lawsuit failed, althou gh the decision rem ained unpublished and left the

door open for a successful challenge.]

Preparing to SueTen d ays after the storm and after having surveyed

extensive road failure and stream channel degradation inseveral watersheds, KFA wrote to Klamath National Forest

man agers urging them to con sider the extraordinary circum-

stance of over 300 roa d site failures and 50 0 m iles of streamchannel degraded by road-influenced debris torrents. We

suggested the FS view the storm dam age as an opp ortun ity todecom mission salmo n-killing roads for which fun ding levels

preclude adequ ate mainten ance. We suggested the FS un der-

take watershed-based EAs which wou ld consider transp ortationneeds an d environmen tal risks in order to decide which roads

to reconstruct and which roads to decommission. We evenprovided the man agers with an EA from the Mt. Hood National

Forest wh ich we suggested was a good m odel for how we

believed KNF man agers shou ld proce ed. However, FS man agersinstead decided to go into the back room an d sort the 724 road

sites into three categories. Where timber sale contr acts existed,

the contracts were modified an d the roads were

reconstructed immediately. The remaining roads

were sorted into two classes: on e large group w ouldbe repaired without environmental review; the

second smaller group would later be considered inEAs for decom missioning. In other word s, decisions

that would impact aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems

far into the future were made without analysis andwithout public input.

The LawsuitWith represen tation from th e Seattle office of

Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, the Klamath ForestAlliance ch allenged o ver 100 of the sites wh ich the

FS had decided (behind closed doors and without

environm ental review) to rep air (KFA v. U.S. Fore stService, William M. Daley, and th e NMFS, Civ. S-98-

1451 WBS/GGH). Our la wsu it was filed in th e EasternDistrict of Californ ia and we drew William B. Shu bb

as the judge.

The sites we challenged were all on level 1 and 2roads (low ma intena nce levels and low recreation

value) which FS biologists had identified as likely toadversely effect coho salmo n, a sp ecies listed as

threatened un der th e ESA. The roads also were

located on steep, unstable slopes or in unstable

stream gor ges.Our lawsuit had th ree claims, one under the

Enda ngered Species Act, one u nde r the National

Environm ental Policy Act and one un der th e Adm in-

istrative Procedures Act. Under the EndangeredSpecies Act, we ch allenged both the Forest Service

Forest emergencies have been declared as an excuse to rebu ild many

roads that never should have been constructed in the first place. Photo

courtesy of Klamath Forest Alliance.

Federal Judge Halts Klamath Road ReconstructionA Precedent and a New Tool for Forest Activists

By Felice Pace


7/16


and National Marine Fisheries

Service for failing to imp lemen t

cond itions o f the biologicalopinion and incidental take

statemen t prep ared by NMFS forpost storm road recon struction.

Specifically, NMFS had imp osed a

man datory condition th at the FSfully con sider the ro ad decom -

missionin g op tion. NMFS isrequired to set terms an d condi-

tions wh en a take is author ized.

The entity autho rized to take thespecies (in this case the FS) is then

required to abide by the terms andcond itions in th e take perm it (see

Title 16 USC Sec.153 6(b)(4)).

Under the National Environ-mental Policy Act we challenged

the FS for failing to p repare anenvironm ental assessmen t. Our

argument was from Council of

Environmental Quality (CEQ) andFS NEPA regu lation s [See 4 0 CFR

Sec. 1507.3(b)(2)(ii), and FSM1909 .15 Sec. 31.1] These regula-

tions specify that road repair m ay

be categorically excluded fromcon sidera tion in an EA. However,

CEQ and FS NEPA regs alsospecify extraordin ary circum-

stances which, when they occur, require preparation o f an EA

for projects th at are ordinar ily categorically excluded fromthe Environm ental Assessmen t process. We argued that the

existence of an ESA listed species (specifically m ention ed as alikely extraordinary circumstan ce in both the CEQ and FS

NEPA regulations) and th e pr esence of steep, u nstable slopes

(specifically n oted in th e FS regs), me ant the FS was req uired

at least to prepare an EA prior to pr oceeding with th e repairs.Under t he Administrat ive Procedures Act (APA) we

claimed that both NMFS and the FS, by no t fully considering

the decomm issioning option, had acted in a mann er that was

arb itrary a nd capr icious in violation of th e APA (Title 5 USCSec. 706(2)(A).

The Opin ionJudge Shubb foun d against us on the ESA man datory

terms an d con dition s cause of action an d for us on the NEPAclaim finding the FS action arbitrary and capricious und er

the APA. The Court h eld tha t (t)he Fores t Services exp lana -

tion for its application of categorical exclusions ... runscoun ter to evidence in the ad min istrative record that certain

repair projects are likely to ad versely affect th e SONC cohosalmon . A determ ination th at a project is likely to adversely

affect a threatened sp ecies indicates a possibility that the

proposed action may have a significant effect on the environ-men t, such th at an EA would b e warranted . Slip Op. at 13 .

The judge en joined the Forest Service from going forwardon over 100 roa d rep air projects un til it com plies with NEPA by

prepa ring Environm enta l Assessmen ts. However, as is typical,

the cou rt did not specify how the FS sho uld organize therequ ired en viron men tal review. After discussions with u s, FS

man agers decided to p repare ranger district-wide EAs for

storm damage respon se actions

for the en joined sites as well as

other dam age sites which werelikely to adversely effect coho

salmon . These EAs are curr entlybeing prepared, and KFA will

review them carefully. The EAs

will be subject to appeal pu rsuan tto FS regulations a nd th ere are

indications that decomm issioningdecisions may be app ealed by

local anti-environmental groups,

includ ing People for th e USA. KFAwould likely intervene in any

app eals filed to prevent deco m-missioning.

ConclusionThis lawsuit sets an impo r-

tant p recedent in th e use of ERFO

fund ing. Prior to this suit theForest Service routin ely ignored

NEPA regulations by ca tegor ically

excluding n early every ERFO roadrep air project. While it is still

necessary to have extraordinarycircumstances to supercede a

routine CE, the legal teeth areno w on pap er. The Forest Service

ordinar ily receives $100-250

million in ERFO funding per year,which can be used to reconstruct roads to current standards or

to decomm ission roads dam aged in disaster events. Whilesom e recon struction m ay be n ecessary, it is still critical that

the FS analyze their impacts an d that th ey fully consider the

decom missioning option. ERFO regs are curren tly beingrewritten to specifically mention options for road decommis-

sioning and other treatmen ts in ad dition to road repair andrecon struction. Given the large need for decomm issionin g and

the relatively low level of Congressiona l funding for de com -

missioning, it is essential the FS view disaster events a sopportunities to decommission roads that pose significant

risks to the environmen t.One word of caution: ERFO cases tend to be wh at lawyers

call fact rich . If you ch allenge post-disaster ERFO recon -

struction, be prepared for long hours r eviewing docum entsand con structing (or interpretin g) databases. There is a

reward, however: youll learn m uch you d idnt know a bout th eroads o n y our nation al forest. Good Luck!

For m ore inform ation con tact Amy Sinden of Earthjustice

LDF at (206) 343-7340, Felice Pace at (530) 467-5291, or theKlam ath Fore st Alliance at PO Box 82 0, Etna, CA 960 27,

ph one & fax (530) 467-5405.

Felice Pace has lived in the Klamath Mountains in far northern

California (aka the State of Jefferson) for 24 years. For the past

15 years he has been a forest activ ist. Felice current ly

coordinates Klamat h River, salmon and water quality w ork for

the Klamath Forest Alliance. Until recently he also served as

KFAs ex ecut ive director.

Activist s now have an important legal tool to challenge ERFO-

funded roadbuilding projects. Photo courtesy of KFA.


8/16


Odes to Roads

The Wolf RoadBy Carolyn Duckwort h

The Wolf Road offers t he best wolf view ing in the

world. Hundreds of people can see t he wolves on anactive evening; t housands over t he summer

experience the thrill.

Acanid picks its way across th e

cobble, following the right ban k of

Soda Butte Creek. Lon g legs andpowe rful h ead : its Yellowstones top d og, the

wolf.

After hunting through a rainy dawn, her

fur is sopp ing, ears slicked back, tail a thinrod of wet and bo ne. She carr ies in h er

mouth a large lump of dark fur with fourtiny legs. Marm ot? Whatever, it will becom e

breakfast for the p ups in the Druid Packs

den.

The wolf climbs up th e ban k, emergesfrom sage, pauses, looks bo th ways, then

crosses th e road in five qu ick steps. She

disappears into sage on h er way to thehidden lake where they have had th eir den

for the past th ree years.

The lake is off limits to curious h um ans wh ile

the d en is active. Hopeful watchers wait both d awnand du sk along the road, hoping to see what I have

seen this morning.

Like most visitors to Yellowstone, wolf watche rs

seldom stray from pavemen t. We don t have to. Oneof the p arks main roads p rovides a viewing platform

that follows the length of the Lamar Valley, which ishom e to one wolf pack and tho usands of elk. For

mo st of the year, the Druid Pack nee d travel no

further than this valley for its food.

The Druid wolves usu ally ignore us tw o-leggeds

who lean against our cars with binoculars pressed

against our faces, or our bodies leaning into spotting

scopes. They traverse the valley, descen d to the riverand follow its banks, swim across, run , walk, sleep,

hu nt, kill, eat, and sleep som e mo re all within

view of human s on the road.

On an early summer evening when the wolvesare visible in the valley, cars pile into the overlooks,

park along the sh oulders, and p ause in m id shift.

Ooos, ahh s, and ch eers echo up and down th e valley,coup les hug in excitemen t, children skip with joy

back to the ir families as th ey see a wolf for the firsttime in their lives.

Something happ ens to these peop letha t is unu sua l for visitors to Yellowston e.

They don t just snap a picture or crossthe a nima l off their mu st see list, and

drive on to the n ext attraction. They

actually park their car s, get out, andwatch the animals for as long as th e

wolves are in sight.

Saturday n ight of Memorial Day

weeken d, 1999 , Rick McIntyre is stridingdown the road , talking into a radio, as we

pass h im in the Yellowston e Institute van. He doesn tglance at us, doesnt wave.

The gray wolfs return t o Yellowston e is a long awaited cause for

celebration. Photo by Kathy Mechtle.


9/16


Rick is the un official am bassador for

Yellowston es wolves. He travels th is road m orn ings,

evenings, and m any afternoons, talking with h un-dreds of people each day, thousands of people each

sum mer. He helps pe ople see the wolves, and he lpsthem understand the behavior they are witnessing.

Through h is efforts, Rick has helped build an

eno rm ous con stituency for the wolves all from theshoulders and overlooks of this road.

My group was retu rn ing to the institute from

even ing wildlife viewing outs ide of th e valley. Just a

half mile up the road, though, we had stopped towatch a dark gray wolf. Our headlights were amo ng a

string of winking red and w hite lights from m orethan one h undred vehicles crowding the sh oulders

and overlooks this evening for more than two miles

along the valley.

The Druid Pack had b een killing elk th is week inthe floodplain below u s. They return ed regularly to

ingest more meat an d carry the food internally back

to the p ups. This evening, the m eat conveyor was

Wolf 21. He was so full of elk m eat tha t he couldbarely trot yet he m oved up an d down the valley,toward the road an d back to the carcass, toward the

road, back to the carcass.

It was an un usual opportun ity to see one of the

wolves so close, but som ething was wron g.

Wolf 21 was pacing an d staring, looking at th e

people, at the cars, looking up and down the road,trotting constantly back and forth . He wanted to

cross the roa d, but couldnt. There was no room .

When we realized what was hap pening, we

drove on and got off the road as soon as we could.We passed Rick, and later found o ut he h ad been

trying in vain to con tact park law enforcem entrangers for help to con trol the traffic and clear a wide

crossing for the wo lf.

It was an unusual opport unity to s ee

one of the wolves so close, but

somet hing w as w rong.

Within an hou r, darkness took car e of the jam,

and Num ber 21 darted across the road and finally

headed ho me. He crossed the road at the same timeof day and near the sam e place where a wolf pup h ad

becom e a statistic in th e pa rks records. A few daysbefore Christm as, 1995, on e of the first pup s born in

Yellowstone was stru ck an d killed by a tr uck d eliver-

ing packages in th e par k. Ironically, his paren ts hadarrived in th e park via that very road.

The Wolf Road offers the best wolf viewing in

the world. Hundreds of peop le can see the wolves on

an active evening; thousan ds over the su mm er

experience the thrill. Each one of these peoplebecom es a supp orter of the wolves, of reintrodu ctionefforts, of Yellowstone. And sheer nu mb ers of

supporters made wolves possible here. The environ-

men tal impact statement about the reintroductionreceived a record nu mber o f commen ts more than

100,000 and m ost of them p ro-wolf. That stron gpub lic supp ort will be n eeded again as p olitical

forces ou tside Yellowstone try to control w olf

populations.

But wh at of our impacts on the Druid Pack? Aretravel disruption s once o r twice a week a serious

problem for them? Have pups gone h ungry because

of the traffic jams? Has a wolfs life be en shor tenedby the stress such as Number 21 endured? How man y

wolves have had close enco un ters with cars, and h owman y have died beneath o ur wheels?

Only the last question can be answered at thistime; the park doe s keep statistics on ro ad-

killed m egafauna. Seven of the eight wolveswho h ave died within the p ark were killed

by vehicles. But these othe r questions

who is searching for their answ ers? And h owman y of us prefer to pretend the qu estions

don t even exist?

That last question s an swer is all tooobvious.

Mine was one o f thirty cars back on theroad in the wet dawn of the next day.

Carolyn Duckwort h is a freelance writer

and editor w hose current work focuses on the

bison m anagement issu e in the Greater

Yellowstone Ecosystem .

Although highway mort ality can be quantified, the indirect im pacts of

this t ype of wildlife viewing are poorly underst ood. Photo by Mark Alan

Wilson.


10/16


Wanna Go For a Ride?As the U.S. Con gress takes up budget a nd spen ding bills this

sum mer, conservation activists are gearing up for the ine vitable struggle

to stop an ti-environm ental riders. These measu res, designed to circum-vent pu blic process, have become a ll-too-familiar in recen t years. Heres

a sum ma ry of developm ents in Approp riations legislation in th e U.S.

Senate and House.

U.S. SenateThe Senate Appropriations Committee met recently to mark-up the

Interior Appr opriations bill. The Senates allocations for Interiorspen ding ($13.8 billion) were far below th e Presidents request and still

leave natu ral resource agencies with serious fun ding deficiencies. Asexpected the Interior Approp riations bill is a vehicle for at least a dozen

anti-environmental riders:

1) Sec. 117: Allow Grazing Without Environm ental Review allows the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to reauthorize grazingperm its without National Environmen tal Policy Act docu me nts, Federal

Land Policy Management Act analysis or Endangered Species Act

requirements through FY 2000 or until the Bureau completes process-ing.

2) Sec. 124: Special Deal For Washington Grazing Interests

extends livestock grazing within Lake Roosevelt National Recreation

Area in Washin gton for 2 0 years, or until the en d of the grazing perm itholders lifetime, whichever is first.

3) Sec. 320 : Delay National Forest Planning halts the revision

of any forest plans n ot already und ergoing revision (except for th ose

legally mandated to complete their plans during calendar year 2000),un til final plann ing regulations are adop ted. This will pressure the

Forest Service to h astily prom ulgate new r egulations, rather thancarefully incorporating recomm endations developed by an independen t

Com mittee of Scientists. Sec. 321 would ha lt fun ding to carry out

strategic plann ing unde r the Forest and Rangeland Renewable ResourcesPlan ning Act (RPA).

4) Sec 325 : Divert Trail Fund for Forest

Health Logging allows the ten per cent roads

and trails fund to be u sed to imp rove forest healthcond ition s. Since the re are no restrictions limiting

the u se to no n-com mercial activities, and logging is

considered a forest h ealth activity, this fun d cou ldbe used to fund timber sales. This is a back door

meth od to fund m ore logging roads for salvage andcomm ercial timber o peration s. This rider also

eliminates the requiremen t that the roads and trailsfund be spen t in the same state the money is

generated in wh en used for these pu rposes.

5) Sec. 327: Tongass Red Cedar Rider

creates an incen tive to maximize timb er ha rvest onAlaskas Ton gass National Forest by leveragin g the

amo un t of Western Red Cedar available for expor t

against the percen tage of the Ton gass allowable salequan tity (ASQ) tha t is actua lly sold.

6) Sec. 328: Prevent Grizzly Bear Introduction

prohibits the Department of the Interior and other

federal agencies from spending funds to introducegrizzly bears in Idaho and Montan a without exp ress

written con sent of the governors of those two states.It requires federal agencies to get state perm ission to

implem ent a federal law on federal land s and sets a

broad precedent, both for other endan gered speciesrecovery actions and for all other federal laws.

7) Sec. 329: Undermine Science -based

Management of National Forest and BLM Lands

provides the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interiorbroad discretion to choose wh ether or not to collect

any new, and po tentially significant, inform ationconcerning wildlife resources prior to amending or

revising m anagem ent p lans, issuing leases, or

undertaking management activities.

8) Sec. 330: Interior Colum bia Basin Ecosys-

tem Project requires th e Secretaries to prepa re a

repor t prior to pu blishing the final EIS. This will

divert fund ing needed to comp lete the EIS andundermine the analysis of the ecological conditions

that p revail in the Interior Columb ia Basin du e to theexcessive logging an d grazing on federal lands.

9) Sec. 335: Stewardship End Result Contract-

ing Demonstration Project perm its the FS tocontract with p rivate entities to per form services toachieve land m ana gemen t goals in nation al forests in

Idaho an d Montana, and in the Umatilla National

Forest in Oregon. Drawbacks include: und efinedcomm un ity roles, lack of provisions for mon itoring

and oversight, and lack of a funding mechan ism.

10) Sec. 336: Weaken 1872 Mining Law

weaken s the 1872 Mining Law by exem pting minin goperations from toxic mining waste dumping

limitations on federal public land.

Legislative Update

Under one of t he proposed riders, trail fund revenues could be divert ed

into logging and roadbuilding under t he guise of forest health. File

photo.


11/16


On June 22, Congresswoman Lois Capps (D-CA) introduced legislation to

term inate th e par ticipation of the USFS in the Recreational Fee-Demon strationProgram . The bill (H.R. 2295 ), en titled the Forest Access Imm ediate Relief Act of

1999 , was referred to th e House Comm ittee on Agriculture and the Comm ittee on

Resources.To offset the revenu e lost by end ing particicpation in th e Fee-Demo pro gram,

the bill would pro hibit using approp riated funds to finan ce engineering fortimber sales. That is defined to include agen cy suppor t to plan, oversee design,

and adm inister road work fun ded by timb er purch asers. The bill directs the

agency, whe n ap praising timb er an d setting bids, to charge extra to cover the costof providing this supp ort.

In a related development on the fee-demo program, the Interior Appropria-tions Bill marked u p by the House will, once again, cut th e bud get of the US

Fore st Service (this time by $44 m illion). The bills langua ge also suggests tha tthe Recreation Fee Demo nstration Program , altho ugh well accepted by thepub lic, needs to be tweaked.

This seems to b e par t of an e ffort to force th e FS to develop pu blic land srecreation into a lucrative cash cow. It also reveals that Con gress is struggling to

deal with the fact that the gene ral pub lic refuses to accept this unsu ccessful and

unfair recreation fee-demo program.

What You Can DoWrite a letter to your r epresen tative pointing ou t that Congress shou ld not

cut the FS budget when th ere is so mu ch back-logged m aintenance to be don e.

Say it is wrong to sub stitute user-pay fu ndin g for allocated fund ing, and th atwith the p rojected budget surp lus, Con gress shou ld increase fund ing for recre-

ation and restoration on public lands.

11) Sec. N/A: Allows Oil Ind ustr y To Cont inue Underp ay-

ing Royalties delays the im pleme ntation of an oil valuation

ru le by the Mine rals Man agem en t Service (MMS). The MMSrule wou ld force the largest oil compan ies to stop u nde rpay-

ing, by $66- $100 m illion a year, the roya lties they owe th eAme rican p ublic for d rilling on pu blic land s.

U.S. HouseThe House Interior Appropr iation s Subcom mittee recently

met to mark-up its own Inter ior spending bill. The original

House spending levels ($11.3 billion) were drastically lower

than the Presidents request ($15 billion) and th e Senate levels(they were later raised to $14.4 b illion). The Presidents Land s

Legacy prop osal, like the Senate bill, received on ly half ofrequested amoun ts.

At pre ss time, the full House Approp riations Comm ittee ismee ting to mar k-up the Interior Approp riations bill. Several

anti-environmental riders are expected.

The Forest Services Fee Demon str ation program has

proven unpopular with recreationist s. Photo by Bill

Cunningham.

What You Can DoCall and write your Senators an d Representa tive (1-202-

224-3121) and tell them to oppose all anti-environmental

riders on the House an d Senate Interior Appro priations bills.Any attack on en viron men tal legislation sh ould be don e in full

pub lic view an d with full public discussion.

Write toRepresentative ________US House

Washington, D.C. 20015

Special thank s to Roger Featherstone and t he GrassRoots

Environmental Effectiveness Netw ork (GREEN) for t his report .

You can reach them at PO Box 40046, Albuquerque, NM 87196-

0046 (505) 255-5966 fax: (505) 255-5953

[email protected].

Bill Would End Forest Service Fee Demo Participation

Senato r _________US Sen ate

Washington, D.C. 20010

Clevenger, A.P. Permeability of the Trans-Canada Highway to

wildlife in Banff National Park: Importance of crossing

structures and factors influencing their effectiveness. 1998.

In: Evink, G.L., P. Garrett, D. Zeigler, and J. Berry,

Proceedings of the International Conference on Wildlife

Ecology and Transportation. FL DOT. FL-ER-69-98.

Tallahassee, FL.

DePaving the Way: References

Lehnert, M.E., L.A. Romin, and J.A. Bissonette. 1996. Mule Deer-

highway m ortality in Northeastern Utah: Causes, patterns,

and a new m itigative technique. In: Evink, G.L., P. Garre tt,

D. Zeigler, and J. Berry. Trends in Addressing Transportation

Related Wildlife Morta lity: Proceedings of the

Transportation Related Widllife Mortality Seminar. FL DOT.

FL-ER-58-96. Tallahassee, FL.


12/16


Bibliography Notes sum marizes and highlights some of the scientific literature in

our 6,000 citation bibliography on the ecological effects of roads. We offer bibliographic

searches to help activist s access important biological research relevant to roads. We

keep copies of most articles cited in Bibliography Notes in our office library.

Bibliography Notes

Desert Road Removal:By Scott Bagley

North Amer ican deser ts include th e warm Mojave,

Sonoran, an d Chihuahuan deserts, and the cold

Great Basin desert. Road rem oval in these areasrequ ires that special attention be given to the harsh climatic

cond itions. The climate o f the North American deser ts ischar acterized by h ighly variable precipitation , large diurn al

(day-night) variations in tem pera ture, low h um idity, and stro ng

winds. Precipitation occurs irregularly as shor t, high inten sitythu nde rstorms. Much of the water from these storms is lost to

surface run off, rather th an infiltrating into th e soil.

Widely spaced long-lived shr ubs pr edom inate in a patchyland scap e com posed o f islands of fertility (M.F. Allen 1988;

West 1988). Many desert herb s are foun d only beneath th eshrubs. What may appear to be a monoton ous terrestrial sea

of one species is actually highly diverse, but no t in theconven tional sense of species nu mb ers. Rather, there is a great

variation within sp ecies. Sagebru sh, for example, may h ave

only slight m orph ological variations across its range, but hasconsiderab le genetic variation. Successful revegetation

programs must account for this genetic variation.

Restor ing Deser t Ecosyst emsHalting road u se greatly imp roves desert ecosystems, since

mu ch of the degradin g influen ces of roads in deser ts relates to

hu man access. Natural desert recovery is extremely slow,however, reflecting the harsh environ me ntal conditions (Webbet al. 1983 ). Natural soil loosening depen ds on ph ysical

processes such as wetting/drying and freezing/thawing (esp.Great Basin d eser t), as well as biological activity. A variety o f

techniques enhance desert recovery, including those listed

below. The techniques are either mean t to improve thepoten tial for natural vegetation establishm ent or to im prove

success of active revegetation.

Decomp act Road Sur facesRoad surfaces must first be decompacted to a depth of

three or m ore feet to facilitate plant establishm ent. Deep

ripping imp roves infiltration an d percolation, an d facilitates

rapid root growth (Bainbridge an d Virginia 1990 ). Rippin g alsoincreases sur face roughn ess, which facilitates deposition of

blowing soil, organic material, seeds, and microsymb ionts(mycorrh izal fun gi and nitrogen-fixing b acteria).

Dig PitsExcavating pits of various sizes improves water availability

for plan ts (Bainb ridge and Virginia 1990). The pits collect

water and increase sur face roughness. A crew of four can digseveral hun dred in a day, using han d tools or power augers

(Patterson 1997).

Use Ver t ical MulchVertical mulching involves planting dead and down ed

plant mate rials into the ground (Patterson 19 97). Placing

vertical mulch (shru bs, cacti, grasses, etc.) helps camo uflage

closed roads, wh ich is especially impo rtant at ro ad take-offs toprevent access. Vertical mulch red uces wind speed, facilitates

depo sition of blowing soil and organic litter, and creates safesites for plant establishm ent. Some planted individuals

survive, providing an additional ben efit of vertical mulching.

Use Horizontal MulchPlacing piles of branches along slope contours enhances

desert recovery by obstructing surface water flow and creatingaerodyn amic drag. Researchers in Australia placed piles of

acacia branch es to m imic the natural landscape patchiness(Ludwig and Ton gway 1996 ; Ton gway an d Ludwig 1996 ), and

found that th is enhanced recovery by:

increasing water infiltration

increasing soil nutrients moder ating temperatures decreasing evaporative mo isture loss

increasing soil faun a (ants, mites, spiders, etc.)

creating favorable sites for peren nial plants protecting plants from grazing and browsing

creating safe sites for plants and an imals during drought increasing rates of biological processes

Apply this techn ique to road rem oval in your region bypiling branches from local shrubs an d other woody plants

along slope contours.

Harsh condit ions often belie the biological diversity of arid env irons.

Photo by Scott Bagley.

Creative Restoration Techniques


13/16


Direct SeedingDirect seeding is genera lly un successful in dese rt reveg-

etation pro jects, even w hen seeds are selected carefully andplanted prop erly; it is an ineffective deser t restoration strategy

(Bainb ridge and Virginia 1990 , Bainb ridge et al. 199 5). Desert

seeds gen erally have low viability an d ar e vulnerable todrou ght and an imals. If direct seeding is used, using local

mater ials and seed ing when precipitation is likely or when soilis moist will improve success (Bainbridge and Virginia 1990).

TransplantingTypical succession is virtually ab sent in North Amer ican

deserts (Vankat 1992 ). The species that colonize disturban ces

tend to continue to dom inate, as opposed to other regions,where plants often m odify conditions, making them more

favorable for other plants. For this reason, transplan tingdominan t shrubs provides great benefits for enh ancing desert

recovery. Once established, shru bs improve sites for new

plants by: trapping soil particles, organic matter, and

microsymbiont p ropagules increasing infiltration an d water storage in the soil

providing protection from the sun and wind

Dominan t desert sh rubs grow relatively well in nu rseries,

but m ay encounter ch allenges when planted in the field(Bainb ridge and Virginia 1990). Water ing increa ses survival,

but seed lings are still at risk from grazing an d browsing. Listed

below are some keys to successful transplanting. Large seedlings with extensive root systems sur vive

better, since they are better able to respon d to rain and u ptakenutrients.

Prun ing prior to outplan ting (planting in the field)

increases seed ling sur vival, since less sh oot tissue m ust besupported.

Inoculating seedlings with mycor rhizal fungi mayincrease su rvival and growth , since mycorrh izal fungi form

mutualistic associations with 90% or m ore of th e plant sp ecies

in arid and se miar id lan ds (E.B. Allen 1988 ). Comm ercialvarieties are available, but using local soil shou ld be em ph a-

sized to avoid introd ucing exotic fun gi to revegetation sites. Providing protection for newly established seedlings is

impo rtant to m inimize dam age from grazing pressure, high

winds, mo isture stress, and extrem e tempera tures. SeeBainbridge et al. (1995) for a discussion of o ptions for protect-

ing seed lings. Plantings based on natural successional processes

enh ance e stablishm ent p oten tial (M.F. Allen 1 988). Plantings

shou ld reflect the dispersed, patchy n ature of desert vegeta-

tion. Successful desert revegetation doe s not necessarily meana road has to be fully covered by vegetation.

Only seedlings from local sources should be used,

reflecting the great genetic diversity of dom inant sh rubs across

their ranges.

As an overall strategy to provide the greatest chan ce ofsuccessfully removing desert road s, use a combination o f the

above techn iques and ensu re that restored areas are no longer

accessed by off-roa d vehicles. If fun ding is no t available tofully remove a deser t road, con centrate th e available fun ds on

trying to cam ouflage road take-offs (jun ctions) to halt access.

ReferencesAllen, E.B. 1988. Some trajectories of succession in Wyoming

sagebrush grassland: implications for restoration. Pages

89-112 in E.B. Allen (ed.). 198 8. The Recon struction of

Disturbed Arid Lands: an Ecological Approach . Westview

Press, Boulder, CO.

Allen , M.F. 1988 . Below ground str ucture : a key to

reconstructing a productive arid ecosystem . Pages 113-

135 in E.B. Allen (ed.) 1988. The Reconstruction of

Disturbed Arid Lands: an Ecological Approach . Westview

Press, Boulder, CO.

Bainbridge, D.A. and R.A. Virginia. 1990. Restoration in theSonoran Desert of California. Restoration and Management

Notes 8(1): 3-14.

Bainbridge, D.A., M. Fidelibus, and R. MacAller. 1995.

Techniques for plant estab lishm ent in arid ecosystem s.

Restoration and Management Notes 13(2): 190-197.

Ludwig, J.A. and D.J. Tongway. 199 6. Rehabilitation of

sem iarid landscapes in Australia. II. Restoring vegetation

patchiness. Restoration Ecology 4(4): 398-406.

Patterson, D. 1997 . Personal comm unication. Consultant,

Round River Conservation Services, San Diego, CA.

Tongway, D.J. and J.A. Ludwig. 1996. Rehab ilitation of

sem iarid landscapes in Australia. I. Restoring p roductive

soil patches. Restoration Ecology 4(4): 388-397.

Vankat, J.L. 1992. The Natural Vegeta tion of North Amer ica: an

Introduction. Krieger Publishing Compa ny, Malaba r, FL.

Webb, R.H., H.G. Wilshire, and M.A. Henry. 198 3. Natural

recovery of soils and vegetation following hum an

disturbance. Pages 279-302 in R.H. Webb and H.G.

Wilshire (eds). Environm ental Effects of Off-road Vehicles:

Impacts an d Management in Arid Regions. Springer-

Verlag, New York, NY.

West, N.E. 1988 Interm ountain deserts, shrub steppes, and

woodlands. Pages 209-230 in M.G. Barbour and W.D.

Billings (eds. ). North American Terre stria l Vegeta tion.

Cam bridge University Press, Cam bridge.

Restoring roads in arid environ men ts requires special techniques. Photo

by Scott Moore.

Scott Bagley is author of The Road Rippers Guide to Wildland

Road Removal.


14/16


Regional Reports & Alerts

Bluewater Network Settles Jet Ski,Snowmobile Lawsuit

The Bluewater Network recently settled an on ging lawsuit against man ufacturersof two-stroke en gines, used in jet skis and snowm obiles. The group sued in Califor-

nia cour t conten ding pollution from two-stroke en gines violates the Californ ia SafeDrinking Water Act and exp oses peo ple to dan gerous levels of carbon m onox ide.

Defend ents nam ed in the suit were: Arctic Cat, Bom bardier, Mercury Marine/Brunswick, Outboard Marine Corp., Polaris Industries, Suzuki Motors, Tohatsu

Outboard Motors, and Yam aha Motors.

Provisions of the settlemen t include: ma nu facturers mu st place warning labelson each vehicle about th e effects of two-stroke engines; they m ust pay $12 5,000 in

legal fees and $1 75,000 to two en viron men tal group s fighting oil spills and o theremissions; two-stroke marine en gine sales will be termina ted in Californ ia by 2006

(the Air Board h as already preem pted th is, establishing 200 4); the ind ustry m ust

develop a two-stroke trade-in progra m for the Los Angeles area; and m isleading eco-labeling p rograms w ill be restricted.

In anoth er victory for th e Bluewater Network, earlier this m onth the Nation alPark Service (NPS) accepted th e Networks sn owmo bile petition an d agr eed to laun ch

an in-depth investigation into the damage snowm obiles cause park resources. Once

the review is comp leted, the NPS will make reco mm end ations on h ow to elimin atesnowm obile imp acts. The US Environm ental Protection Agency had agreed to the

request to set regulatory standards for snowmobile emissions.For m ore inform ation contact the Bluewater Network at 415-788-3666 (phon e)

or on th e web at: www.earth island .org/bw. ORVs Stopped

Activists on the Blacksburg-Wythe

Ranger District (Jefferson NationalForest), nor th of Blacksburg an d no rth o f

Wytheville, Virginia, r eport a victory in

their efforts to limit ORV-caused damage

of public lands.One o f the districts mo st contr over-

sial projects was a prop osed 12 -mile

ORV trail on Roun d Mounta in, in th e

Burkes Garden section of th e forest. TheORV trail would have been audible from

the Appa lachian Trail, just a cross th evalley. The trail was propo sed on q uiet

old woods roads and steep slopes

upstr eam from Hunting Camp Creek, aTMDL stream segmen t (protected u nde r

the Clean Water Act).On June 18, District Ranger David

Collins ch ose th e n o-build alternative,

citing po tential for tresspass on to privateland, ha zardous trail/road cro ssings,

potential impacts to n umer ous streamchann els on the side of the moun tain,

and overwhelming local opposition to

the m otorized trail.For more information contact

Sherma n Bamford of Preserve Appa la-chian Wildern ess (PAW), PO Box 1 3192,

Roanoke, Va 24031-3192 (540)982-0492.

Alliance Plans Annual Rendezvous

The Missoula, Mon t. based Allian ce for the Wild Rockies (AWR) will hold its

ann ual Wild Rockies Rendezvous on Septemb er 17-19. Held in the Rattlesnake

Moun tains at Snowbowl, just north of Missoula, Mon tana, this three d ay eventincludes han ds-on worksh ops, inform ative pane ls, live mu sic and m ore. This years

keynote ad dress will be delivered b y Martha Marks, president of Repu blicans forEnvironmental Protection.

Camp ing is free, food is available for p urch ase on -site, and registration is on ly

$10 for the weekend. See an on-line schedu le at www.wildrockies.org/awr. For m oreinforma tion an d to register, contact AWR outreach director Bob Clark a t 406 -721-

542 0, e-mail: bob clark@w ildrockies.org, or PO Box 8731 , Missou la, MT 5 9807.

Ruts like these, caused by illegal ORV use,

accelerate erosion and damage downslope

water quality. Photo by Cate Campbell.

Wildlands CPR will soon pub lish a n o n-line library of our extensive collec-tion of bibliograph y notes, legal notes, and field no tes. It will be po sted on the

world wide web an d fully inde xed to facilitate searches. Our goal is to get these

scientific, legal and field resources into th e h and s of road activists, where youcan p ut them to work fighting for road removal.

Wildlands CPR announces an internship opp ortunity working to fight the

specter o f indu strial recreation with Wild Wilderness in Bend, Oregon. Help getrid of bad recreation man agemen t, from ORVs to huge private campgrou nd s on

pu blic lands. For more informa tion con tact Scott Silver at 541-385-5261, or e-mail: [email protected].

New Resources for Road-Rippers


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Wildlands CPR Publications: Road-Ripper's Handbook ($15.00, $25 non-members) A

comp rehen sive activist m anual that includes th e five Guideslisted below, plus The Ecological Effects of Roads , Gather-ing Informat ion wit h the Freedom of Information Act , andmore!

Road-Ripper's Guide to t he National Forest s ($4, $7 non-mem-

bers) By Keith Hamm er. How-to pro cedu res for gettingroads closed and revegetated, descriptions of environ men -tal laws, road de nsity stan dards & Forest Service road poli-cies.

Road-Ripper 's Guide to t he National Parks ($4, $7 non-mem -bers) By David Bahr & Aron Yarm o. Provides backgroun don th e National Park System an d its use of roads, and o ut-lines ho w activists can get involved in NPS plann ing.

Road-Ripper 's Guide t o the BLM ($4, $7 non-memb ers) ByDan Stotter. Provides an overview of road-related lan d an dresource laws, and det ailed discussion s for participating inBLM decision-making processes.

Road-Ripper 's Guide to Off-Road Vehicles ($4, $7 non-mem-bers) By Dan Wright. A com preh ensive guide to redu c-ing the use an d abuse o f ORVs on p ublic land s. Includes an

extensive bibliography.

Road-Ripper s Guide to W ildland Road Removal ($4, $7 non-members)By Scott Bagley. Provides tech nical inform a-

tion on road construction and removal, where and whyroads fail, and how yo u can effectively assess road rem oval

projects.

Trails of Destr uction ($10)By Friends of the Earth and Wild-land s CPR, written by Erich Pica and Jacob Smith . This

repo rt explains th e ecological imp acts of ORVs, federal fund-ing for motorized recreation on p ublic land s, and the ORV

industrys role in pu shing th e ORV agenda.

Bibliographic Services:Ecological Imp acts of Roads: A Bibliographic Database (Up-

date d Feb. 1998) Edited by Reed Noss. Com piled b y Dave

Augeri, Mike Eley, Steve Humph rey, Reed Noss, Paul Pacquet& Susan Pierce. Contains ap prox. 6,000 citation s includ-

ing scientific literature o n erosion, fragmentation, sedim en-

tation, po llution, effects on wildlife, aquatic an d h ydrologi-

cal effects, and other information on the impacts of roads.Use the ecological literature to un derstand an d develop roaddensity standards, priorities for road removal, and other

road issues.

Database Searches We will search th e Bibliograph y on thesubjects that interest you, and provide results in IBM or

Macintosh form at (specify software), or on pap er. We alsohave prep ared a 1-disk Bibliographic Summ ary with resu lts

for comm only requested searches. Finally, we offer the full

bibliography. However, you mu st ha ve Pro-Cite or a com -patible database pro gram in order to use it.

Bibliography p rices Prices are based on a sliding scale. Callfor details.

WILDLA N DS CPR MEMBERSH IP/ORD ER FORM

Please send this form and your check (payable to Wildlands CPR)to the address below. Thank you!

Wildlands CPR PO Box 7516 Missoula, Montana 59807

Prices include shipping: for Priority Mail add $3.00 per item;for Canadian orders, add $6.00 per item.

International Membership $30 MinimumAll prices in U.S. Dollars

Ask about reduced rates for items ordered in bulk.

Phone/E-mail

Affiliation

I want to join (or renew my membership with)Wildlands CPR:

Address

Name

Type of Member ship: Individual Organization

Other$30 standard

$50 business

$15 low-income

$100$250

Send me these Wildlands CPR Publications:

Qty: Title/Price Each: Total:

Total of all items:

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Non-profit OrganizationUS POSTAGE

PAID

MISSOULA, MT 59801PERMIT NO. 569

The Road-RIPorter is printed on 100% post-consumer recycled, non-chlorine bleached paper.

Wildlands Center for Preventing Roads

P.O. Box 7516

Missoula, MT 59807

You know what they say : t he biggest

difference betw een men and boys is

t he size of t heir t oys.

Radio advertisement promoting Kalispell

(Montana) motorized vehicle show.

A t ree grows in Brooklyn, so to speak.

Photoby

BethGraves.

road riporter 4.4

Documents